Kiruna, Sweden's most northern city, has grown around an iron mine. The iron mine has got so big that the ground underneath the city has weakened. This has caused buildings to crack and collapse.
LKAB is the mining company responsible for this and has proposed to spend the equivalent of $1.4 billion dollars taking apart the city and rebuilding it 2 miles east. Many of Kiruna’s citizens are worried that LKAB will demolish homes without rebuilding them or that the new homes will be too expensive to live in. The city relies on the mine however and LKAB has promised to offer help.
The design of the new city centre was made into a competition for architects around the world and won by a company called White Architects. Work has already begun and the new city centre should be finished by 2019.
Cities often share similar characteristics. Learn more with Twig film - Urban Settlements.
